Insomnia, Thy Name is Jori

Last night was the weirdest night we've had with Jori since she was a newborn.

It all started with skipping her afternoon nap. I wanted to show my sis-in-law Jandel this part of the Provo River Trail that Sam and I used to bike all the time, that leads to a little duck pond and a playground. Then Sam skipped his last class of the day, so he was available to come and I was even more eager to go. So when Jori wasn't taking to napping, I just said 'forget it' and got her out. I was thinking she'd probably fall asleep in the stroller on the outing.

Wrong. She skipped it completely, and was acting super tired by five o' clock when we left.

Too late at that point, right? That's what I figured. I thought we'd just put her to bed early-her bed time is at seven o' clock, so we just had to hold her off for like an hour and a little and then she could go down.

An hour and a half later she was acting real whiny, and I realized what time it was and was so proud of her for lasting that long! So Sam tromped upstairs and put her to bed. She cried for ten-ish minutes, then fell asleep. Pretty normal.

HERE'S where the weird stuff began:

6:50-7:20, Jori's asleep

7:20-7:35, Jori awake, crying. Frantically. You know those short little cries they do when they're real worked up, almost panicky? Like a whole ton of short ones in a row? Uh-uh-uh-uh-...I can't type it. Take my word for it-she was doing that. So...

7:35 I go up to get her, but I don't nurse her since Sam had given her a bottle less than an hour before. I bounce with her for about fifteen minutes, then take her downstairs so Sam can help me give her some ibuprofen. We were clueless, I'm telling ya. So then...

7:55, back in crib. Still crying, still really upset.

8:15 Sam goes in and gets her, and takes her outside for a minute (she seemed hot-we thought this could help). She calmed down as soon as he picked her up though, so he didn't spend much time outside since she thought they were off on another adventure and was she was looking around like there were pirates or something.

8:20-8:30 Sam holds her till she falls asleep in his arms. He puts her down, HOLD YOUR BREATH...she wakes up. arg!!

8:30-8:47 Jori cries while Sam works on homework and mommy finishes the mountain of dishes she's been procrastinating.

8:47 Mommy goes upstairs and decides to nurse her after all: doesn't work, she's still awake. Super cute though, talking gently to herself afterward. So a new tactic is tried: taking Jori to bed with her. Jori does not sleep in our bed though, like ever, since she was much tinier and would nap on my chest while I laid in bed. So it's not like this is a common occurance-she's NEVER slept in bed with us at night; but we're willing to try anything at this point to get this poor creature to sleep. She doesn't like being on my chest this time but after I just hold her next to me, she snuggles in, talks gently and then falls asleep.

**Side note: Apparently, all of us Christensen children sleep like our dad does, with our arms high above us. Total exposure for a tickle attack. All my brothers' wives say they sleep that way, Sam says I sleep that way, and I discovered last night Jori sleeps that way. Made me smile, I tell you what.

9:05? After being asleep for about ten minutes, Jori wakes up, fairly upset. So I take her downstairs for daddy to hold so I can actually get ready for bed this time, take out my contacts and whatnot, and then try again with her in bed with me. I take about ten minutes, come downstairs and this is what I find:

The happiest sleep deprived baby you ever did see. What the heck?! Jori just kept laughing and smiling HUGE, like that, for about twenty minutes. What can you do? We just laughed right along with her, and let her stay up with us while we watched soccer videos on youtube. Finally...

9:40, that's right NINE FORTY, we all go upstairs and I nurse Jori again, in bed with me. But she's not going for it and both of us think it'd be better if we put her back in her crib-we don't want to be forming any bad habits (more than we've already formed anyway), so I put her in her crib and...

she sees her stuffed pig, so reaches for it and snuggles into it. I put her blanket over her and expect to hear the crying within 20 seconds of me leaving the room, as is customary...but nope! Didn't hear a peep. She finally fell asleep.

SUPER weird night with the little one. Sam said he heard Jori crying at 11 and 4, but apparently I was too out of it so I didn't hear her myself until 5. But she seems no worse for wear this morning?? My cute little crazy babe.

Dinner #2: Why, no, P.F. Changs, We Aren't Working at Another Chinese Restaurant

Number two! Sichuan-Style Chicken with Peanuts:

Pros: Soooo so yummy. Gah. Quick and easy to prepare, and only 273 calories per serving.

Cons: Rice vinegar and sesame oil aren't very...I don't know I considered them to be a bit 'exotic,' I mean I don't know how frequently we'll be using those; same with ginger and scallions. So if you follow it exactly it could be a bit of an expensive meal.

Now we didn't use fresh snap peas, because frozen they're cheaper; we also didn't buy real ginger because ginger powder just made more sense to me; and I couldn't find scallions at the grocery store so we left those out. I barely know what they are.

Overall this meal was amazing. I give it an A-, only minus for the couple kind of random ingredients. We'll probably make this meal pretty frequently.

Call me Julia Childs!

I've been real impressed with a lot of my family members lately. My mom is basically going without sugar for six months-she's still eating fruit, but no sweet treats. My sis-in-law Chantale and my brother Mike have decided to do similar-they're eating healthy with basically no sweets, and exercising trying to reach weight/body fat percentage goals. And another brother, Nate, has also decided to eat healthier and exercise more, and his wife Jandel is being very supportive.

They've been the inspiration I needed!!!

Now, I feel intimidated when it comes to cooking a lot of the time. There's so much to consider! I feel like I need to cook healthy, inexpensive, tasty meals, that incorporate in food storage and don't take too long to prepare. Did you get all that? That's five things. Oh! And presentation! Apparently dishes are supposed to have different elements of color, texture, temperature, shape and...I think something else, like flavor variety. WHO CAN DO ALL THAT?! Not I, said the Ariel.

But!! With all this healthiness in the air, I decided to just pursue one of those possibilities, and not worry about the rest. So I found Seven healthy recipes online, plus one snack recipe, went out and got the ingredients and am having at it! I'll post my reviews on here of each.

So first recipe: Angel Hair Pasta with Basil Cream Sauce:

Pros: Quick to prepare, not too expensive or exotic on the ingredients (for the most part), only 314 calories per serving.

Cons: A serving size is not realistic-both of us had more. And if you leave out the garlic (Sam hates garlic), not much flavor. Plus I've never been too big a fan of pasta. And prosciutto? Even the meat guy at the grocery store didn't know what I was talking about.

Overall...I give it a B-. I'd probably be fine making this about once a month, but probably not more than that.

Most bipolar birthday ever

So I turned 23 on Friday. It felt kind of weird, because when I entered college I was about to turn 19 and I thought ok, 21 year old guys are on the same page as me, brand new to college (most of them) fresh off their missions. 22-year-olds I thought were basically equivalent to a year older than me. (See how I was just subtracting out their mission? I'm not sure how appropriate that was or not...) But 23-year-olds? They were pretty old. And now I've hit that mark myself. I guess it just makes me realize what a significant five years of my life I've just lived, and it kinda boggles my mind how quickly it seems I got from being a high school senior to a college graduate (ok, Associates degree but it counts), wife and mother. Time sure can fly.

But I'm getting off-track. I wanted to talk about the actual day, rather than what it implies. So re-focusing: the day started off quite nicely. Sam took Jori downstairs so I could have an extra hour of sleep, and brought me up breakfast in bed after I woke up. It was delicious! :) We dropped Sam off at school, then Jori and I went to baby story time at the Provo City Library. We came home and I put Jori to sleep, and started watching a fun movie I'd checked out. I sure do love movies.

And then! ugh.

So it's a long story, but basically our apartment had all this damage over the past two months randomly. Now we never damage apartments. In two years of marriage I don't think we've done so much as...I can't think of any really minor damage but, even that! But for some reason, everything we touched turned to broken, it seemed. One of those things was the wall below our stairs-Sam was exercising early one morning by doing toe-touches on them, and somehow slipped and fell backwards into the wall-leaving a huge dent. Oops.

That wouldn't be so bad on it's own. But unfortunately it doesn't stop there. This one day Sam had had a really long day at school/work and came home with a headache, but it was one of the days I have school in the evening so he had to take care of Jori until bedtime. But she screamed the whole time for him. Like, the entire time. And he held out and held out and finally got her to sleep and put her down in her crib...only for her to immediately wake up and start screaming again. That'd break pretty much anybody! So he left the room, closed the door and without much thought, just as a reaction to the stress and frustration...hit the door. And broke it. Bah.

That's really no big deal-Sam would never in a million gazillion years, ever hit Jori or me. I've known a ton of guys who have hit walls, doors or cars when frustrated. It's all right, it happens. As long as it isn't a regular occurance-that'd get expensive in a hurry, with medical bills and damage repairs. Not to mention hello, control your temper. But the last time Sam hit something because he was so frustrated was like, ten years ago, so I'm not worried about this becoming a habit.

BUT! Joy of all joys, our apartment managers came by the day before my birthday to inspect our place (they were doing inspections of all the apartments). And I was so embarrassed of our damages (there were more, like I said I'm just embarrassed) I didn't want to be there so I left them a note explaining how the damage happened and left.

Unfortunately, they interpreted it as me trying to protect my husband, and not being there because I'm trying to hide a black eye or something. Yeah. They thought Sam was abusing me!!! They thought the dent was from Sam throwing me down the stairs!

Worst birthday present ever!!! The person you're closer to than anyone else, is accused (falsely, of course!!) of one of the worst possibilities ever?! Need I use more exclamation points?!?!?!

That's probably overkill so I'll ease up on those. So anyway I spent a good half hour explaining to the maintenance guy who came by on my birthday, to fix a toilet but also question/inform me about their concerns, that Sam is not abusive and those were simple, explainable accidents. Followed by Sam and I going over together after he got home to ease the mind of our manager. Bah.

At least we succeeded. Sheesh. Now we've just got to be SUUUPPPPEEEERRR careful not to damage anything else. Sam also mentioned (he took this way easier than I did, he was just laughing about the whole thing) "Wouldn't it have been awful if you'd tripped or something and you did have a black eye when you saw them?" That would have been straight out of a Mary Higgins Clark book: all evidence is stacked against someone, but in the end turns out they're innocent. Thank goodness that wasn't the case, I think I would have passed out or something equally dramatic.

The rest of the day went smoothly at least-Sam, Jori and I went out to Cafe Rio for dinner, then we left Jori with babysitters and Sam and I went and saw MI4 at the dollar theater. Great end to the day. :) Oh wait I'm forgetting! Even better, when we got home, the babysitters told us "She was the easiest baby ever-we played for half an hour, she ate from the bottle, we put her in the crib and she only cried 10 minutes before falling asleep. And she hasn't woken up yet." I just said "Excuse me? Are we talking about the same baby?" yeah, miracles happen folks. I guess that was Jori's present to me.

Well, it's midnight so I'd best stop fussing with this blog and turn in.

Social butterfly...

...flap your glorious wings! Sometimes I wonder how Jori is our daughter. I mean Sam and I are both introverts. He's reserved and I'm friendly but shy. So neither of us are like, life of the party kinda people. But Jori LOOOOVVVVEEEESSS other kids. Loves them. And babies. All she wants is to be close to other kids and babies, and laugh at them and wiggle with delight when she sees them. And growl at them a little, that too.

Anyway that's not really why, but I thought it was kind of hilarious that Jori got invited to TWO birthday parties within two weeks of each other! Both those babies were first children in their families (like Jori), and they were both turning one. And both parties were 'Cat in the Hat' themed, and were both so impressive. Sometimes people just blow me away with their abilities. I am not all that creative in that department-whenever I'd get legos, I wouldn't know what to do unless it was the kind that came with a box that told you how to make it into something. Well, I mean whenever I tried to play with legos. I never actually got them, as a gift, for said reason probably.

Anyway. Jori had a great time at both parties. Little cutie. :)

Facebook withdrawals

For those of you that noticed...yeah right, like anyone noticed. But I deleted my facebook account last week. I don't remember what day or anything, but man! It's been difficult! That's why I deleted it: I thought I was on there too much. Sam joined my name with his so technically we're 'sharing' his, but I asked him to change the password to something I don't know so I can't be using it all day. I just check it out with him in the evenings for a little while.

As far as increased productivity goes, so far there's been little success (for example, I should be studying right now). But! It's only the beginning, right? Gotta start somewhere.

It's been difficult though! Old habits die hard. I'm still wasting time online, but when I would have typed in facebook into the domain spot, instead I type blogger or youtube or ksl. So I do still need to work on just wasting time less online altogether.

Still, I'm proud I've made it this far. Next goal is to un-attach the tv, but that's difficult because that's the same way we get internet and internet is kind of a necessity for school right now. If we can figure out a way for our neighbors to share it with us though, then I'll be getting rid of tv next. Phew!

In other news, none of my comments are showing up that I make on others (or even my own!) blog. Any ideas as to why that might be?

Presidents day weekend

So for President's day weekend, we were going to go up to Franklin but it didn't work out because of work/school. For both of us, actually. Bummer. So instead, Darren and Loalee came down to visit with us on Saturday! We had a nice time enjoying one another's company, and one thing we chose to do was go to the park. Jori was in a swing for the first time.

She loved it. :

p.s. her legs are in tights, little pink tights. But they really are that chunky.

Some videos

Here are some vids of Jori Pori. Did you know I call her that a lot? I also like Jori Bean, like a little Jelly Bean.

http://youtu.be/ghnxeSbBA2M Sam and Jori do a 'tent' sometimes, which is absolutely adorable. I love it. Love love love!

http://youtu.be/lydb-wnztk8 Jori's chattin.

http://youtu.be/65Vzqft3m50 Jori's chewing in this one, for the first time. :) I'm a mega dork though in it. Blagh

http://youtu.be/JzplKcrYJRQ this is her trying rice cereal for the first time, right about at Sam's birthday so when she was 4 months old.

And here's still my favorite growling one: http://youtu.be/Rhx5GFBRUjA so cute!!!

Valentines Day is for LOVERS...

Do you like that spicy, spicy title? Me too.

I've pretty much always enjoyed Valentine's day, except for 2009 when I was still hung up over the guy who'd broken up with me a few months before. I've always thought it needn't be a day solely for romantic lovers, but that we should be able to celebrate all those we love in whatever way. Then one day in...like 2008, there was a devotional talk at BYU-I that I attended that totally supported the idea-it talked about...well, basically this. Just take a look for yourself. Fascinating stuff.

Anyway so almost always, I look forward to a day devoted to love. Why not, right? I love holidays. I always dress Jori and I up for them. (Pictured above, and below is evidence.) And I don't need a huge deal to be made, but I've made it clear to Sam I like flowers and chocolate on Valentines day. (By saying 'Sam, I want flowers and chocolate for Valentine's day this year' several times before the day. I try to make it easy for him-that way I'm not annoyed or disappointed when he doesn't pick up on hints, and he doesn't feel frustrated either.)

So Valentines was great this year. Not that we were able to celebrate all that much-we only saw each other for 45 minutes before 7:00 pm, but we made the time we had count.

When I got home from my Tuesday class, guess what was on the front door? A sweet little envelope with a heart and my name on it. I opened the envelope and found...a CLUE!! Sam sent me on a mini scavenger hunt around our apartment! Since he knew I'd love it.

And love it I did! I had so much fun hunting down all the clues-even though I needed a bit of help on a couple. Finally he led me to roses and chocolate, which he'd hid under the covers on our bed. Joy! :)

He then took me downstairs and had a surprise dinner waiting, which definitely was a surprise. He wanted to do something un-expected, so he got a whole ton of...like snack foods and finger foods, and just made those. He even cut some of the cheese into little hearts. What a romantic! ;)

I had a great Valentines day. I hope everyone else did, too.